Robert Hunter, Partner at Edmonds Marshall McMahon, will chair the first day of this year’s C5 Fraud, Asset Tracing and Recovery Conference in Geneva.
Over the past 15 years, Robert’s much anticipated opening talk introducing C5’s Geneva Forum has become a tradition. As in previous years it will examine what we can learn from other disciplines including mathematics, military science, medicine and psychology.
Risk Taking in Fraud and Law, Robert Hunter
All professionals have their own style of accommodating risk into their advice, particularly those involved in litigation. Litigation is, after all, all about the assessment of risk. It is such a fundamental part of what we do that we barely notice that we are doing it. How will a judge react to a particular allegation? Whom will a judge believe? How will a witness (even an expert witness) perform in court? Basic human questions like these play a huge part in our confidence in the system and our expectations as to how our clients will fare in it. This talk will consider the following questions: Do we acknowledge the risks that we are taking?
- Are fraud lawyers natural “risk takers” and how does that affect our
role in the litigation process? - What is the best way of distinguishing different kinds of risk?
- Is there a relationship between risk taking and honesty, not merely
for fraudsters but also for lawyers? - To what extent does litigation procedure affect our perception and judgement of risk?
Mock Case: Do’s and Don’t’s in Cross Boarder Frauds between UK and Switzerland with Saverio Lembo, Partner at Bär & Karrer (Switzerland).
Kate McMahon will be discussing:
- Interplay between civil and criminal remedies – which is quickest and which is best?
- Coordination of legal representatives at various steps of the proceedings – who should go first from a strategic perspective?
- Private prosecution vs. State prosecution – when to use one in preference to the other?
- How to ensure that the victim’s interests are duly taken into account by prosecuting authorities?
- How to assist the authorities to act more quickly?
- How to avoid the release of frozen assets to the benefit of the fraudster?